Category Archives: mental health

Bleak outlook ahead because of the cuts to social care

May 8, 2013   Carers, dementia, disability, mental health, Older care, Social care

Extra investment ‘needed to make care cap work’

By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News

 Social-care budgets have already been squeezed in the past few years

The government’s commitment to reform social care will require greater investment, ministers have been told.

A bill limiting the cost to disabled and elderly people of their social care will form part of the government’s legislative programme for the next year, the Queen’s Speech revealed.

Previously ministers had proposed introducing a cap of £72,000 in 2016.

But campaigners and council chiefs told ministers budget cuts were already putting the system at risk.

Research by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (ADASS) suggests the £16bn budget for social care, including services for both elderly and disabled people, is likely to be trimmed by £800m in the next 12 months.

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Cuts in services leave dementia victims in fear

May 2, 2013   Alzheimer’s, Carers, dementia, mental health

Dementia victims face crime wave on doorstep

Published on 02/05/2013 00:01

A LOOMING £1bn cash crisis could leave dementia sufferers at greater threat from rogue traders who are exploiting cutbacks in social services to target some of the most vulnerable members of society.

Trading standards officers in Yorkshire have warned the rising numbers of pensioners who are suffering from mental illness are being placed at increased risk as care professionals are no longer available to ward off the advances of doorstep criminals.

The Alzheimer’s Society claims a £1bn funding gap is looming in social care nationally, as local authorities are forced to strip back resources to cope with the Government’s austerity measures. North Yorkshire County Council alone is faced with making savings of more than £90m across all its departments, and finance directors have warned front-line services including social care will be hit.

Many dementia sufferers will be left with a reduced level of care in their own homes, prompting fears they will be targeted by organised gangs of criminals who are travelling to the region to prey on the elderly.

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You have to raise your voice to get mental health issues on the agenda

April 24, 2013   Carers, mental health

It’s time to talk about mental health

Angela McNab, chief executive of one of England’s larger mental health trusts, explains how listening to patients has led to improvements

You have to raise your voice to get mental health issues on the agenda, says Angela McNab.

In government, as in society, attitudes tend to change gradually, so health minister Norman Lamb’s commitment to “prioritising mental health like never before, making sure that it sits on par with physical health” has come as a welcome step change to mental health professionals.

Although one in four people in the UK will have mental health problems at some point in their lives, mental health services suffer institutional disadvantage compared to physical health services; press coverage of mental health is scant; and jokes or insulting language about mental illness are common.

When the previous government introduced major policies on payment by results, waiting times and patient choice, it excluded mental health and, despite considerable investment in the NHS overall, in the early 1990s spending on mental health declined.

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